Land Matrix Newsletter - June 2013

The Land Matrix Global Observatory: Towards a public tool to promote greater transparency in decisionmaking over land and investment at a global level

The aim of the Land Matrix initiative is to promote transparency and open data in decision-making over land and investment, as a step towards greater accountability. The Beta version of the Land Matrix Global Observatory was launched in April 2012 as a tool to promote public participation in building a constantly evolving database on large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA), and making the data visible and understandable. Since its launch, the Land Matrix has attracted a high degree of attention, and stirred some controversy. It provides valuable lessons on the challenges and successes of promoting open data on practices that are often shrouded in secrecy. Based on these successes, challenges and the integration of new elements, a new version of the Land Matrix Global Observatory has been developed. It is being launched in June 2013. This newsletter presents the new version of the Land Matrix Global Observatory and details the on-going efforts by the Land Matrix partnership to build a public tool to promote greater transparency in decision-making over land and investment at a global level.